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14 Foreign News
Monday, 7 November, 2011
thai floods death toll rises above 500 BANGKOK AfP
The death toll from Thailand’s worst floods in decades jumped above 500 on Sunday as the seemingly unstoppable waters crept deeper into Bangkok, swamping main roads and threatening the city centre. The government said the disaster has now killed 506 people nationwide - an increase of 60 from the figure reported a day earlier. So far no deaths in Bangkok have been reported in the official toll. At least 20 percent of the capital is already submerged in floodwater contaminated by rubbish, dead animals and industrial waste, raising fears about outbreaks of disease in the densely populated metropolis of 12 million people. The slowmoving water is now just a few kilometres (miles) away from business and tourist districts, and authorities are desperately seeking to push the floods through waterways in the east and west of the city and out to sea. In Bangkok, more than a million people have been told to evacuate 10 districts out of a total of 50 in the capital, and a partial evacuation order has been issued in five others. But many have chosen to stay in their homes despite risks including electrocution, disease and lack of food and drinking water, complicating relief efforts. Thai authorities failed to save a number of major industrial parks from the floods, despite earlier assurances they would be protected. The crisis is taking its toll on the lucrative Thai tourism industry, with countries including the United States, Britain, Singapore, Canada and the Netherlands advising against all but essential travel to Bangkok.
4 killed as Syrians rally on eid DAMASCUS AfP
Security forces killed four civilians as antiregime demonstrations were staged across Syria on Sunday, the first day of the Muslim feast marking the end of the Haj, a human rights group said. Three of the civilians were killed in Homs, the flashpoint central city where protests against the rule of President Bashar al-Assad were held in most districts despite a weeks-long military crackdown. In Homs, “a civilian was killed by security forces gunfire in Bab Dreibi district, another died in shelling in Baba Amro... and a third was killed by snipers,” the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said in a statement received in Nicosia. Security forces also shot dead another civilian in the city of Hama, which lies further to the north. And in Talbi, a town near Homs, “four protesters were wounded, one seriously, when the security forces fired on a demonstration,” said the Britain-based Observatory.The latest reported crackdown on protests came as Syrian state radio reported President Assad attended Al-Nur mosque in the northern town of Raqqa for prayers on Sunday morning to mark eidul Azha.
AYUTTHAYA: A resident in a boat travels through floodwaters near a statue of buddha at a temple, on Sunday. ReuteRS JERUSALEM
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SRAeLI President Shimon Peres warned late on Saturday that an attack on Iran was “more and more likely,” days before a report by the UN nuclear watchdog on Iran’s nuclear programme. He told Israel’s privately owned Channel Two television: “The intelligence services of the different countries that are keeping an eye on (Iran) are worried and putting pressure on their leaders to warn that Iran is ready to obtain the nuclear weapon. “We must turn to these countries to ensure that they keep their commitments... this must be done, and there is a long list of options,” Peres added. In recent days, speculation in Israel has grown about the possibility of a preemptive strike against Iranian nuclear facilities. On Wednesday, it was reported that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister ehud Barak were seeking cabinet support for an attack. The military last week carried out what Israeli media called a “ballistic missile” test, as well as a large-scale civil defence drill simulating the response to conventional and non-conventional missile attacks. Officials said both events were longplanned and unrelated to the specula-
Attack on Iran ‘more and more likely’: Israel g
Conclusive UN Iran nuke report expected later this week
tion about military action, but both helped drive talk here about whether Israel is ramping up plans for an attack. On Sunday, it was reported that US officials had failed to secure a commitment from Israel that it would coordinate any plans to attack Iran with Washington. Citing unnamed US officials, Haaretz said US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta had used a recent visit to Israel to make clear Washington did not want to be surprised by any Israeli attack, but received only a vague response from Netanyahu and Barak. Still, media reports suggested no final decision on a strike has been taken and that a report by the International Atomic energy Agency (IAeA) nuclear watchdog on November 8 would have a “decisive effect” on decision-making. Previous IAeA assessments have centred on Iran’s efforts to produce fissile material - uranium and plutonium
- that can be used for power generation and other peaceful uses, but also for the core of a nuclear warhead. However the new update, which diplomats say will be circulated among envoys on Tuesday or Wednesday, will focus on Iran’s alleged efforts to put the fissile material in a warhead and develop missiles to carry them to a target. Israeli defence analysts have described the Iranian programme as “alarming,” and Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman has said the report would prove “beyond doubt” its military aims. He said he hoped Iran would be targeted by a new package of international sanctions. On Monday, Barak was forced to deny media reports that he and Netanyahu had already decided to launch an attack against Iran over the opposition of military and intelligence chiefs. But he said “situations could arise
in the Middle east under which Israel must defend its vital interests independently, without having to rely on regional or other forces.” Haaretz said a majority of the 15 members of Israel’s security cabinet were still against an attack on Iran. Only that body can take such a momentous decision. A poll published by Haaretz on Thursday found Israeli public opinion divided on a strike against Iran’s nuclear facilities, with 41 percent in favour, 39 percent opposed and 20 percent undecided. Israel has consistently warned all options remain on the table when it comes to Iran’s nuclear programme, which the Jewish state and Western governments fear masks a drive for nuclear weapons. Iran denies any such ambition and insists its nuclear programme is for power generation and medical purposes only.
Last mountain priest dies in India’s Sikkim NEW DELHI AfP
An ancient ritual of worshipping Kanchenjunga, the world’s third-highest mountain, has ended with the death of the last Lepcha priest in remote northeast India, reports said Sunday. “The tradition... has ended forever. It is not possible for another person to learn the rituals and take Samdup Taso’s place,” local resident Sherap Lepcha told the The Times Of India. The indigenous Lepcha people of Sikkim have worshipped the Himalayan peak for hundreds of years in an annual ceremony led by direct descendants of the original “bongthing” or priest. But the death of Samdup Taso, 83, has left the Lepchas without a priest to continue prayers for the mountain, which is
SIKKIM: A view of mount Kanchenjunga taken from Kaluk Bazaar. On Sunday, an ancient ritual of worshipping Kanchenjunga ended with the death of the last Lepcha priest. AFp
revered as Sikkim’s guardian deity, the paper reported. Taso had one son who has not become a priest, the newspaper reported, adding that Taso died in his na-
tive Nung village in the Dzongu region of north Sikkim on October 31 without anointing a successor. The Lepchas are seen as the original
inhabitants of Sikkim, a tiny former kingdom nestled between Nepal, Tibet and Bhutan that only became part of India in 1975. “Taso, believed to be a descendant of the first ‘bongthing’, used to lead (the) elaborate rituals that would commence with overnight prayers at his residence,” the Times reported. Details of the Lepcha creation myth vary, but the Calcutta Telegraph in its report on Taso’s death said locals believed that the first Lepcha couple had been made from fresh snows at Kanchenjunga’s summit. The British climbers who conquered Kanchenjunga in 1955 stopped just short of the peak out of respect for the Sikkimese belief that the spot is sacred, and other expeditions have since followed suit. The mountain, measuring 28,169 feet, straddles Sikkim’s western border
with Nepal, and tourists from around the world travel to the region to admire its distant peaks from viewpoints and hotel balconies. Sikkim was controlled by “chogkals” (kings) until 1975, when India intervened after an uprising against the monarchy by the majority-Nepali population who migrated into the region in the 19th century. The Times reported that about 55,000 Lepcha people remain in Sikkim, 800 years after they settled near the base of Kanchenjunga. It said many Lepchas had turned from nature-worship to Buddhism or Christianity, and that ceremonies devoted to Kanchenjunga had become rare in recent decades. Reports said that Taso died after mild earthquake tremors shook the region. Sikkim was hit by a severe quake in September that killed at least 100 people.